Daycare drama

It's been a whirlwind week, both Seth and I being busy with insane work schedules (as always it seems - what happened to my supposed 20-30hr work week?).  Add to that the stress of ending daycare with our current provider, and gearing up to starting with a new provider (Alexise, our current provider, is going on maternity leave) next week.

Except, now we're not.  

So here's the story... 

We had been interviewing frantically starting in December, trying to line up a new daycare provider before Alexise went on mat leave.  We found a provider that seemed okay, and she was the same price as what we were currently paying for 4 days.  So, bonus, right?

Except I never really felt all that comfortable with this new provider.  Why was she so much cheaper than all the other daycares we had called?  And why didn't her children, that were home with her, integrate with the other kids in the daycare (they stayed upstairs all day apparently)?  And why didn't she have any paint or pictures on her walls?  (yes, I realize I'm a weirdo - but it made the "home" seem really sterile.  Like "just-moved-in" sterile).

But her hours worked, and like I said - there wasn't anything "technically" wrong with her.  So we sent her an email and said we were signing on, and that we'd like to start Jan 26th.

And then Christmas came and went.  And January started flying by.  And the closer we got to the 26th, the more I started to stress about this new daycare.  Until I finally just started combing through any new ads that had been posted, and calling those daycares.

Then, Thursday of this past week, I interviewed a lady.  Who. Was. Fantastic.  She teaches sign language (meaning, she'll continue our efforts - awesome!).  She has 4 other little ones in her care, a bunch of pre-school and after-school kids.  Her home is set up like a "daycare".  And she was just warm.  Nice and friendly.  Business-like, but clearly loved kids.  And asked to hold Maddie (do you know how often providers DON'T do this when you're interviewing?  Seems so odd to me)...

And of course, she's FAR more expensive than what we're currently (or were planning on) paying.  Of course she is.

And of course she needed an answer from us by Friday, because she had someone else lined up for the spot, but because we could start right away, she'd be willing to go with us.  

So on Friday, during the busiest of all days this work week, I also had to sort this out in my (our) mind.  Which did we go with?  Was I being unreasonable and weird with my "instinct" choice?  But did we really want to make our decision on daycare based on $$$?

In the end, we went with the fantastic provider.  Maddie starts on Feb 2nd.  I emailed the other provider and apologized profusely about cancelling at such short notice (don't feel that bad for her - she still had her ad posted, which was another weirdo thing to me). 

And now she's back with Alexise for one more week.  Haha.  I expect everyone thinks I am a neurotic crazy mom.

Good thing I know that I was neurotic and crazy before ever becoming a mom - so really, nothings changed for me...

xxoo.S